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Derulo associate told women ‘if you’re not on this bus to have sex then get off’

Two men on trial accused of raping woman after singer played 2014 concert in Cork

Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 19:11Updated: Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 19:12

Sarah-Jane Murphy

Two men are on trial at the Central Criminal Court accused of raping a woman after a Jason Derulo concert in Cork in 2014.

The trial of two men accused of raping a woman after a Jason Derulo concert has heard that one of the singer’s entourage told women partying on the tour bus: “If you’re not on this bus to have sex then get off.”

On day five of the trial at the Central Criminal Court, a female friend of the complainant who was also selected to board the bus, said she didn’t like the atmosphere on the vehicle.

She said: “I decided to get off. There just wasn’t a nice feeling on the bus. It was dingy; it was jammed, absolutely jammed.”

The men, aged 35 and 44, deny the offences alleged to have occurred in a vehicle at an unknown location in Cork city on June 27th, 2014.

The 35-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to rape, oral rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment of the then 19-year-old woman.

The 44-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to anal rape and false imprisonment of the woman on the same occasion. The accused men can not be identified for legal reasons.

Mr Derulo is not charged with any offence in relation to these events.

Left the bus

On Thursday, the complainant’s friend said she and a second friend left the bus after hearing what the man had said.

When the two women noticed the complainant had not disembarked with them, they waited outside the bus for five minutes, before walking back to their parked car. They then drove to nearby shop, and received a phone call from the complainant.

“We went back to where the bus was. She [the complainant] had her jumpsuit on inside out, she was roaring crying, and was in a state,” the witness said.

Another woman who attended the “after gig party” at the Cork city nightclub, and partied on the bus afterwards, said she saw the complainant talking to a man on the bus and said he “went in for a group hug”.

Invited back

A third witness told Donal O’Sullivan, prosecuting, that she got talking to one of Mr Derulo’s entourage at the nightclub, and was invited back to the tour bus.

She said she briefly saw the complainant downstairs in the lounge area. The witness said she got off the bus after receiving a phone call saying it was travelling by ferry to the UK.

“I texted her [the complainant] and said ‘Hun, get off the bus, they’re going to England’.”

She said she then made her way to her friend’s car and they travelled back to where the complainant had said she was waiting for them.

“She [the complainant] was shaken, shook. Her jumpsuit was inside out. She could barely talk, she was very, very upset,” she said.

The woman said the complainant told her friends that a bouncer had prevented her from getting off the bus, and that two men had then raped her at the same time, one from behind and one from the front.

The trial also heard from Garda Liam Mulcahy who was on mobile patrol when a friend of the complainant approached him and another garda, and told them of the alleged incident.

Garda Mulcahy said he approached the bus driver, informed him of the situation, and told him gardaí­ needed to secure it for a technical examination.

The complainant alleges that a man identified as “cap guy” blocked her from getting off the tour bus. She claims he brought her upstairs, where he raped her, orally and vaginally, while they were “half in, half out of a bunk bed”.

She claims another larger man came over at one point and also raped her. The woman said she was terrified and asked them to stop, but they did not.

She said she managed to make her escape after a third man came over and said “I’m next.”

It is the prosecution case that “cap guy” is the 35-year-old accused and the larger man is the 44-year-old accused man.

Earlier in the trial, during cross examination, Seán Guerin SC, who is defending the 35-year-old accused, said his client accepts he had sex with the complainant, and accepts she performed oral sex on him, but does not accept consent was absent.